Boy who tames sea monsters?

OK, I have to rant here: How is killing this shark equated with taming? Why is this considered an acceptable thing to do? The saga of the Old Man and the Sea doesn't cut it with me anymore. It's clear that our definition of 'taming' has more to do with ego and arrogance than it does understanding and compassion. The parent of this kid should be fined and the kid's fishing license taken away.

Thanks for listening to my rant...


Boy who tames sea monsters
DAMIEN STANNARD
16oct05

FOR a brief moment during his two-hour struggle with this monster shark, teenager Alex Johnston thought he'd hooked a submarine.

But by the time the battle was done, the pint-sized Cairns angler had instead landed a world record 4.1m tiger shark weighing 485.2kg.

"It looked monstrous - like a submarine," said the 13-year-old, who at just 42kg and 150cm is dwarfed by his catch.

Alex claimed the junior world tiger shark record - his 13th world mark - following the marathon tussle with the shark on his father Graham's boat at Linden Bank on the outer ridge of the Great Barrier Reef on Tuesday.

The pair had been chasing giant black marlin when the big predator latched on to his 130-pound (60kg) line about 4.30pm.

With the help of his dad and deckhand Kenton Greer, Alex spent the next two hours reeling in the beast, knowing all the while that one lapse of technique could see him fall into the ocean beside the giant maneater.

"We took it easy, just kept going round and round to tire it out," Graham said.

"But when the sun started to go down I thought we better try to get it in. I didn't want to be trying to get it in in the dark."

Alex said the adrenalin rush kept him going.

"It was tiring. We were in the sun, I was sweating and I needed lots of water," he said.

"But afterwards I wasn't that tired. I was ready to catch another one."

Graham, an experienced charter operator and member of the Cairns Game Fishing Club, was amazed by the tenacious teenager's haul.

"He's been coached by some good people. He's a far better angler than I ever was," he said.

Alex's latest effort follows his junior (11-16 years) records for barramundi, hammerhead shark and another monster of the deep - a 392kg black marlin.

source: http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/